"I was in a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon and happened to spot Linus Torvalds sitting alone at a window table. I asked the creator of the Linux operating system and the Git source code control system if I could join him. Over the next fifteen minutes we talked about programming and programmers." Editor's Note: We've realized it's unclear whether this is a satirical interview or not. We don't know, so YMMV.

Nope. It used to be about learning your system and having complete control over your OS. Now, it's about the Arch admins stroking their OS-penises and measuring them against each other, and newcomers are turned away with a "take your ball and find another playground" attitude. Very hipsterish, if you ask me.

If you don't believe me, look into the furor on the forums over the last couple of months regarding highly aggressive, system-breaking core changes with very little notice or resolution. Various Arch admins have been quoted as saying they hate the idea of anyone new using Arch, that they want the distro to fall into obscurity so they will be "left alone by all the noobs", and that they are making the aggressive changes to purposely turn away anyone new to the project.

And yes, I know the majority of the Arch community is not like that. It's a core group of admins who are trying to close up the project and turn their backs on the community at large. I wish they would just fork off and leave it in more sane hands.